Commonwealth Ex Rel. City Of Richmond v. Chesapeake & O. Ry. Co

• Decision Date: 13 January 1916
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH ex rel. CITY OF RICHMOND. v. CHESAPEAKE & O. RY. CO. et al. SAME. v. VIRGINIA RY. & POWER CO. et al.

87 S.E. 622

118 Va. 261

COMMONWEALTH ex rel. CITY OF RICHMOND.

v.CHESAPEAKE & O. RY. CO. et al.

SAME.

v.VIRGINIA RY. & POWER CO. et al.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Jan. 13, 1916.

[COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED]

Appeal from State Corporation Commission.

Petitions by the Commonwealth of Virginia, at the relation of the City of Richmond, against the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company and others, and against the Virginia Railway & Power Company and others. From orders of the State Corporation Commission in the matter of taxation of the rolling stock of the defendants, sustaining defendants' demurrers to the petitions and dismissing them, the petitioner appeals. Affirmed.

H. R. Pollard and Geo. Wayne Anderson, both of Richmond, and Geo. Mason, of Colonial Beach, for appellant.

E. P. Buford, of Lawrenceville, J. O. Shepherd, of Palmyra, Martin Williams, of Pearisburg, A. H. Light, of Rustburg, Randolph Harrison, of Lynchburg, and H. W. Anderson, of Richmond, for appellees.

WHITTLE, J. These appeals are from orders of the State Corporation Commission, in the matter of taxation of the rolling stock of railroad corporations, sustaining the demurrers of appellees to petitions filed by appellant and dismissing the same.

The railway companies are not resisting the orders of the State Corporation Commission, and have paid into court the one year's tax which is the subject of controversy, to be distributed among the several counties, cities, towns, etc., in accordance with the apportionment made by the commission in the event tins court shall affirm its decision.

Judge Robert R. Prentis, chairman of the commission, in an exhaustive opinion has discussed all questions raised by the petitions for appeals with convincing ability. This court, upon mature consideration of the matters brought under review, concurs in the conclusions reached by the commission; and it is our unanimous judgment to adopt the able opinion of the chairman as the opinion of this court, and for the reasons therein set forth to affirm the orders appealed from.

The opinion is as follows:

"A majority of this commission declared the rolling stock act of 1912 unconstitutional (State Corporation Commission Report 1913, p. 78) and the Supreme Court of Appeals, on appeal from that decision, declared that it was repealed by the act of March 13, 1912 (Supervisors of Henrico County and Others v. City of Petersburg, 116 Va. 311, 81 S. E. 112). The General Assembly at its 1914 session (Acts 1914, c. 218), and before the decision of the court was announced, in response to an overwhelming public sentiment, and in the pursuit of its fixed purpose to change the method of assessing the rolling stock of railroads for local taxation, passed an act which reads as follows:

" 'Chap. 135.—An act to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act in relation to the assessment, for local taxation, of the rolling stock of railroad corporations, approved March 12, 1912. (H. B. 88.)

" 'Became a law without the Governor's approval March 18, 1914.

" '1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That an act entitled an act in relation to the assessment, for local taxation, of the rolling stock of railroad corporations, approved March twelfth, nineteen hundred and twelve, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

" 'The rolling stock of the various steam, electric and street railroad corporations doing business in Virginia (whether operated by steam or other motive power), so far as the same is taxable in this state, shall not be assessed for local taxation at the principal office of said corporation, but the value of said rolling stock, as ascertained and assessed by the State Corporation Commission for the purpose of state taxation shall be divided, apportioned and distributed (for the purpose of local taxation) among the several counties, cities, towns and school districts in this state, in and through which any part of any such railroad is located, in the ratio and proportion that the total assessed value of the right of way, road bed, track and all other property (except rolling stock) of such railroad corporations, respectively, located in any such county, city, town or school district, bears to the assessed value of all such property (except rolling stock) of said railroad corporations, respectively: Provided, that foreign railroad corporations doing business in this state shall be assessed for taxation on the average amount of rolling stock habitually used by them in this state.

" 'The State Corporation Commission shall annually, on or before the fifteenth day of October in each year, divide, apportion and distribute, according to the ratio and proportion, aforesaid, the assessed value of rolling stock of said railroad corporations, respectively, among the several counties, cities, towns and school districts in and through which the line, or roadway of any such railroad corporation is located, and certify to the board of supervisors of said counties, and to the councils of said cities and towns, respectively, the proportion of the assessed value of said rolling stock for local taxation by said counties, cities, and towns and school districts, respectively; and the proportion of the assessed value of said rolling stock which shall be subject to taxation for local purposes by the counties, cities, towns and school districts, as aforesaid, shall be that part of said assessed value of said rolling stock certified by the State Corporation Commission to the respective boards of supervisors of the counties, and the councils of the cities and towns, as hereinbefore provided.

" 'The said valuation of said rolling stock, whan so ascertained and certified and apportioned, as aforesaid, shall be held to be situated for the purpose of local taxation in said cities, towns, counties and districts and taxable therein in the same way and manner as the physical properties of said railroad is taxed for the purpose of local taxation, as now provided by law; and said apportionment shall be treated in allrespects, for the purpose of local taxation, as if said rolling stock was actually situated in said cities, towns, counties or districts, and the situs, or place of taxation of such rolling stock, to the extent of said valuation and apportionment, shall be in the said cities, towns, counties and districts aforesaid and not elsewhere; and shall be taxed in all respects as other property is taxed for local purposes in such cities, towns, counties and districts through which said railroad passes, in whole or in part, and the councils of such cities and towns and the boards of supervisors of the several counties in the state in which the said railroads are situated as aforesaid, shall be, and they are, hereby authorized to levy upon the value of said rolling stock, so ascertained and certified as aforesaid to said cities, towns, counties and districts by the State Corporation Commission aforesaid, the same rate of local levies and taxation as is put and placed on the physical properties of such railroads situated in said cities, towns, counties and districts for local purposes.

" 'And the several railroad corporations shall pay over to the treasurers of the respective counties, and to the treasurers of the respective cities and towns, the taxes to which they shall be respectively entitled under such assessment, at the same time and in the same manner as taxes levied on the other properties of such corporations for local purposes, are required to be paid.

" 'All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

" 'This act shall be in force from and after the twenty-fifth day of June, nineteen hundred and fourteen.'

"By authority of this act the commission in 1914 assessed and distributed the value of the rolling stock, and certified such assessments to the various local authorities as thereby directed.

"After this was completely done the act was attacked by the city of Richmond and the city of Petersburg before this commission in these proceedings.

"First. It is claimed that the title is defective, in that it violates section 52 of article 4 of the Constitution of Virginia, prescribing that 'no law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title.' It is said that this statute does not state its object; that, while the subject is stated, the object is not. Some authority is cited for making this distinction. We believe, however, that these authorities are not supported by reason, are unsound, and are not controlling, and that the great weight of authority supports the proposition that, as used in this constitutional provision, the words 'subject' and 'object' should be construed as having the same purpose in view and mean substantially the same thing. Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 170.

"The purpose of the constitutional inhibition is well understood. In Commonwealth v. Will-cox, 111 Va. 856, 69 S. E. 1030, the doctrine is thus restated by Keith, President:

" 'The construction of the constitutional provision that no law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title, was before this court in the case of Commonwealth v. Brown, 91 Va. 762, 21 S. E. 357, 28 L. R. A. 110. The unanimous opinion of the court was written by Judge Riely, and the conclusion reached was that the title of an act will be sufficient, within the meaning of the Constitution, if the things authorized to be done, though of a diverse nature, may be fairly regarded as in furtherance of the object expressed in the title. All that is required is that the subjects embraced in the statute, but not specified in the title, be congruous and have natural connection with or be germane to the subject expressed in the title. And the Constitution is to be liberally construed so as to uphold the law, if practicable. It was claimed in that case that the body of the statute embraced many objects instead of one; that it amended and repealed many sections of...